


Flotsam of a Lost War

by Alyndra



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s05e03 Extreme Risk, Gen, Maquis, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 07:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19719013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alyndra/pseuds/Alyndra
Summary: From the prompt:“…When B'Elanna experienced depression after the death of the Maquis, Chakotay said that he and B'Elanna were going have regular meet ups to talk…”





	Flotsam of a Lost War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kingstoken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingstoken/gifts).



> ST: Voyager’s such a blast from the past: my first fandom! Rewatching a little was fun. Thank you, Marciaelena, for helping my memory!

“I want to gut some Cardassians on the holodeck,” B’Elanna opened with, leaning in his doorway. 

Chakotay didn’t get up. “You’re at my quarters instead of the holodeck for a reason.”

She blew out a frustrated breath, but stepped inside. The door closed behind her. “Starfleet won’t even bother arresting us. There’s no Maquis cause anymore. We’re just pathetic remnants.”

“We’re not pathetic,” Chakotay said, waving to his other chair. “Is revenge-gutting Cardassians going to fix anything?”

She sat, sighed. “It would make me feel better.”

“Because they’re genocidal assholes who killed everybody we love, and we swore to never stop fighting them?” She’d come to him because he understood. It had been his war too.

“I used to tell myself we were temporarily putting the war on hold, just until we got home...but how long was I lying?” She looked bitter. “Even before we got the news they were all dead. Would I have left Tom, left Starfleet, to keep fighting?”

“No,” he said quietly. “It was unwinnable. And out here…you grew into a bigger person when you stopped fighting all the time.”

She growled anguish, but it wasn’t just that their comrades were gone. The Maquis _cause_ was, too. Because they couldn’t carry the faith. 

“Someday I’ll forgive myself for abandoning my oaths.” He fingered the arched curves of his communicator. He’d chosen Voyager, for his crew to live instead of die, and no halfhearted loyalty would have gotten them this far. His Maquis were going to get back home, have promising careers in Starfleet, do whatever they wanted. They’d never forget their massacred comrades, but they wouldn’t give up the community forged here, either.

“Who knows,” B’Elanna snorted. “Someday, even Cardassia may succumb to that insidious Starfleet idealism.”

It had happened to them, after all.


End file.
